1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print intermediary server useful for mediating a printing instruction.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, web application has become popular. A web application is an application that is provided by a web application server and accessed via a web browser of a client PC. When the web application is used, installation of applications in the client PC becomes unnecessary. The web application includes an application used for generating a document, editing the document, and storing the generated document in a storage of a web application server.
Conventionally, certain procedures have been necessary in printing a document, which has been generated using such an application, by a printing apparatus. First, a user generates and edits a document using a web application, and stores the document in a web application server. Then, via a web browser of a printing apparatus, the user downloads the document from the web application server to a storage of the printing apparatus. Lastly, by using an operation unit of the printing apparatus, the user instructs the printing apparatus to print the document stored in the storage. This type of printing performed according to the above-described procedures is called PULL type printing. This is because the download of the document originates from the printing apparatus when the printing is performed.
On the other hand, there is a demand for seamless operation using web application from the generation of a document to the printing of the document by a printing apparatus. This type of printing is called PUSH type printing. This is because a printing instruction is externally given to the printing apparatus. However, since the printing apparatus is protected by a firewall for security reasons, it does not accept the printing instruction according to the PUSH type printing given by the web application server via the Internet. Thus, methods for realizing the PUSH type printing via the Internet are being discussed.
Among such methods, there is a printing method according to which the printing apparatus sends a message to a web application server at regular intervals asking whether a print job exists. If a print job exists, the printing apparatus downloads the print data and performs printing (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-022165). This print method is called printing using polling.
However, according to the print method using polling, if a printing instruction is given by various web application servers, the printing apparatus needs to perform polling of a plurality of web application servers. If the printing apparatus performs polling of a plurality of web application servers, the load of the network of the printing apparatus increases. Further, setting of the web application servers necessary in the polling will be complicated.